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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23840959">Walking Corpse</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Morganoire/pseuds/Morganoire'>Morganoire</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Gen, Survivor Guilt, some gore</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 19:21:45</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,756</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23840959</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Morganoire/pseuds/Morganoire</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>This is my interpretation of some events that happened during the timeskip of the Blue Lions route. I don’t own any of these characters or places!</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Walking Corpse</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Spacing was a little wonky on this for some reason, and even though I tried to fix it multiple times, there was no way I could separate the paragraphs. I apologize for that!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Gah, the pain! Make the burning stop! Help me… Somebody…” The red glow of flames burned in the corners of Dimitri’s eyes. He turned his gaze away from the gasping soldier, only to meet the icy blue eyes of his father piercing him like a lance that had been shoved into his chest.<br/>
“Avenge us! Those who killed us… Tear them apart! Destroy them all!” His father’s command was cut short by a swing of an axe, which severed his father’s head cleanly off. Dimitri snarled and closed his eyes.<br/>
“Don’t rest until you’ve killed them all.” His friend Glenn’s cold voice crept into Dimitri’s ears, slowly, chillingly.<br/>
“Your Highness… you must live to take the throne that is rightfully yours.” The booming, calm voice of Dedue rang through his head. Dimitri’s grip on his lance tightened. He opened his eyes.<br/>
“Silence! I told you all I would kill her countless times already! Leave me!” He heaved his lance at the tall, muscular figure of Dedue, which disappeared upon the lance passed through its body. Dimitri’s legs buckled beneath him and he collapsed onto the ground, burying his head in his hands.<br/>
“Dimitri… you will get your revenge, won’t you? And not just for yourself. For everyone who’s died in this senseless war, for those who died in the Tragedy of Duscur, and for me. I believe in you.” Dimitri looked up. Staring back at him were the mint eyes of his beloved professor, her matching mint hair blowing in the soft breeze as though she were really there. Byleth stood before him, with the same flat expression she often wore, and her perfect complexion reflecting the blue moonlight. Her hand reached to him, and Dimitri couldn’t take it anymore.<br/>
“Make it stop!” He reached back towards his face and grabbed wildly, his rage blazing more ferociously than even the fires of the Tragedy of Duscur. His fingers curled around his right eye and he pulled back, his immense strength ripping the eye from its socket and crushing it like a soft fruit. He roared, the pain fusing with his anger, but the pain soon burned away in the flames of his rage, until only fury remained. Dimitri looked up, barely aware of the blood pouring out of his empty eye socket and down his face. Byleth and the others were gone, no longer haunting him. For now. Dimitri stood up, stepping in the deep crimson puddle which lay at his feet, and retrieved his lance, bloodstained and battle worn. The emptiness inside him only grew as he walked on, fueled by vengeance alone.<br/>
Time’s passage was a blur. The days and nights seemed to pass irregularly, but then, Dimitri almost never paid attention to what time it was anymore. He groaned, opening his eye slowly. Sleep rarely came to him, and when it did, more often than not, it was plagued with nightmares. Dimitri sat up slowly, his muscles sore from fighting a group of thieves recently. Yesterday, two days ago, it didn’t matter. All that mattered was that the thieves were dead. Nothing but rats, all of them. Using the chaos of war to raid villages and take what isn’t theirs. Pathetic. Dimitri rubbed his head briefly running a hand over the patch that covered his right eye socket. Ironically, he had taken it from one of the thieves he had killed. Dimitri walked on, occasionally plagued by visions of friends and family long dead, and being drained by the intense summer sun hitting his black armor and being absorbed into the furs on his cape. His garb was suited to the cold of Faerghus, but Dimitri had no idea where he was now. As long as the road he walked led to Edelgard’s demise, it didn’t matter how he got there.<br/>
Dimitri’s blood turned the stream’s clear water a cloudy red as he reluctantly cleaned his eye socket the best he could. He scraped off dead skin and tissue and splashed the cold stream water into the hole, rinsing it out. He had been trying to clean the socket as much as he could, since he knew if it got infected and he died, he wouldn’t be able to kill Edelgard and avenge those he cared for. A brief sting of pain interrupted his thoughts. Dimitri growled. He put his hand in the water, and thought he felt something moving. Instinctively, Dimitri grabbed his lance and stabbed into the water. The red cloud grew and he lifted a large salmon, its body flailing around helplessly, barely clinging on to life. A smirk crept across Dimitri’s face. He finished cleaning his eye socket and set about skinning and deboning the fish. He felt a great satisfaction in doing this, and imagined Edelgard being in the same, helpless position as the fish. I will scrape off your skin so you can feel the burning of those in the Tragedy of Duscur. I will pick all the bones from your body as you barely cling to life so you can feel the pain of all those who have died in the senseless war that you started. And the spirits will feast upon your flesh, rejoicing in your death and finally being able to rest in peace. Dimitri shook his head, his long blond bangs dangling in his field of vision, bringing him back to reality. He ate all of the salmon, the meat, the intestines, the heart, and everything else edible. He couldn’t taste it anyway, on account of the ageusia he’d had since he was 13. Dimitri pushed the bones and skin into the stream and watched them float away, and his thoughts wandered to Byleth. I will avenge you, too. I will toss Edelgard’s bones and skin off the cliff into the river where you fell and your spirit can kill hers, so that way, you can rest in peace, as well. He sat by the river, thinking of Byleth and the happy times they had shared, times that were forever out of reach.<br/>
The blazing sun was finally descending below the horizon and giving way to the cool night when Dimitri saw them.<br/>
“Be quiet.” He turned to Glenn and his father, who had been following him for a few hours now, sometimes speaking, other times just being a reminder of Dimitri’s purpose.<br/>
Soldiers from the Imperial Army were advancing towards the remains of a seemingly once-grand establishment that teemed with familiarity and warm memories for Dimitri. Without a second thought, he took off after the soldiers. He knew Edelgard had sent them, thinking that the mountains at the center of Fódlan would prove to be a valuable point of attack. She wasn’t wrong, but Dimitri couldn’t let her get anything, especially not this place. He raced after the soldiers through the abandoned marketplace, and caught up with them at the entrance to the monastery. He hurled his lance at the closest soldier, and the strength of the throw was enough to pierce through the soldier’s armor and flesh, and blood spurted in all directions as the lance came out the other side. He ripped the lance from the body and sliced its head off. Screaming and shouting filled the air. Dimitri ran towards the main group, and with one swing, took four soldiers’ heads completely off. The bodies rolled down the stairs leading up to the monastery, leaving red trails in their wake. Dimitri pinned one soldier down and stabbed his throat, and the soldier gasped for air for a minute before choking on his own blood and his eyes rolled back into his head until only white remained. Dimitri grabbed another soldier’s head, crushing the skull in his hand. Blood sprayed everywhere as the clash went on, and after several minutes, Dimitri had killed all of them. His armor and lance, as well as the furs he wore, and even his cape, were stained red. Dimitri grinned, his face and hair splattered with blood. Soon, he thought, soon I will slaughter Edelgard’s entire army like this. Anyone who dares defend such a lowly creature must die.<br/>
Dimitri wandered the ruined monastery, seeing the old fishing pond and the greenhouse where Dedue often spent his time. He saw his classmates’ dorms, all empty now, same as the training grounds where he spent many days training with his friends, Felix, and Ingrid. He walked past the classrooms, where he had learned so much from Byleth, and the dining hall, where he, Byleth, and his friend Sylvain, had shared so many happy times. He saw the cathedral, once sacred, now crumbling, and the stables, once filled with happily whinnying horses, now empty, just like everything else in the ruins. For the first time in a long time, Dimitri was filled with an overwhelming sadness rather than anger. He walked back near the entrance of the monastery where he had fought the soldiers and sat down in the shade against a wall. He hung his head, his blond hair and single blue eye the only reminders of the boy he used to be. Dimitri had grown 8 centimeters since his days at the monastery, his shoulders were broader, and he was more muscular. There was simply no way anyone would recognize him, and he thought that perhaps that was for the better.<br/>
A soft clicking sound slowly entered Dimitri’s ears, and grew louder, coming up the stairs toward him and the monastery. Another soldier? Dimitri didn’t move until he sensed the sound had stopped several feet away from him. He looked up, the sun rising, outlining her silhouette perfectly. Byleth stepped towards him and reached out her hand, as other visions of her had in the past. She didn’t speak at that moment, but there was a strange understanding lurking in the depths of her eyes. Her serious face teemed with knowledge unspoken, as well as a kindness Dimitri had so dearly missed.<br/>
Dimitri had never prepared himself emotionally for the day he would see her again, and so he said the only words that came to his mind. They weren’t actually the only words he thought of, but the only ones he felt were relevant in his current state. “I should’ve known… that one day… you would be haunting me as well.” He stood, slowly absorbing the knowledge that, this Byleth that stood before him now, she was real, not a vision. A faint glimmer of light had returned to Dimitri’s life. With her by his side… maybe he could do this after all.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This is my first fic, so I hope you enjoyed it! Also, I’m sorry if there were long stretches without paragraph breaks. I’m still figuring out how to best divide my paragraphs. 😅</p></blockquote></div></div>
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